Gemini 1.5 Pro Environmental Impact
Google's flagship model with strong efficiency
Per query = Median text prompt (~300 tokens)
Energy per query
0.24 Wh
CO2 per query
0.03 g
Water per query
0.26 mL
Processing location
Google global network (64% renewable)
Provider
Category
Text / Chat
Grid carbon intensity
300 g CO2/kWh (64% renewable)
How does Gemini 1.5 Pro compare?
Detailed Breakdown
Energy Consumption
Google Gemini is the most energy-efficient major commercial model, consuming just 0.24 Wh per median text prompt — slightly less than a traditional Google search. Google achieved a 33x reduction in Gemini's energy use per query between May 2024 and May 2025 through hardware and software optimizations. Gemini runs on Google's custom TPU v5e/v6e chips, which are purpose-built for transformer inference and significantly more power-efficient than general-purpose GPUs.
Power Source & Carbon
Google runs Gemini on its own global data center network using custom TPU chips. Google claims 100% renewable energy matching for its operations and reported a 10% year-over-year drop in market-based emissions. However, Google's total emissions still grew ~50% from 5.8M to 11.2M metric tons CO2 (2020-2024) on a location basis. The "100% renewable" claim uses renewable energy certificates, not 24/7 clean energy at every data center.
Water Usage
Gemini uses just 0.26 mL per median text prompt — the lowest of any major model. Google's data center water consumption has increased 88% since 2019, but Google has invested in water replenishment projects and uses recycled water at several facilities. The Council Bluffs, Iowa facility alone consumed 1 billion gallons in 2024.
What does your Gemini 1.5 Pro usage cost the planet?
Use our calculator to estimate your personal environmental footprint based on how often you use Gemini 1.5 Pro.
Calculate My ComputeFrequently Asked Questions
How much energy does Gemini 1.5 Pro use per query?
Each Gemini 1.5 Pro query consumes approximately 0.24 Wh of energy. This is about the same as a traditional Google search (~0.3 Wh).
What is Gemini 1.5 Pro's carbon footprint?
Based on the carbon intensity of Google global network (64% renewable), each query produces approximately 0.03 g of CO2. The grid in this region has a carbon intensity of 300 g CO2/kWh with 64% renewable energy.
How much water does Gemini 1.5 Pro use?
Each query consumes approximately 0.26 mL of water, primarily used for cooling the data centers that process the request.
How does Gemini 1.5 Pro compare to a Google search?
A Gemini 1.5 Pro query uses about the same as a Google search in terms of energy. A Google search uses approximately 0.3 Wh, while Gemini 1.5 Pro uses 0.24 Wh.
Technical Details
Architecture
Multimodal Transformer (Mixture-of-Experts)
Context window
1,000,000 tokens
Release date
2024-02-08
Open source
No
Training data cutoff
2024-11